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What kind of community have we become?

It is absolutely shameful that Nipomoans (or others?) are complicit in discouraging migrant workers on a federal H-2A visa (difficult for farm owners to even obtain) from getting access to temporary, affordable housing locally.

It’s maybe one thing that some of these hard-working Mexicans are illegal—driven to come to the U.S. out of poverty—but entirely another when they are here legally, sponsored, and still have their housing burned down by xenophobes!!

That it is happening in Nipomo, once a very rural area (and site of a famous photograph of a migrant worker from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl ’30s), should be the focus, is ludicrous. Believe me, the embarrassment should go viral.

There are many hard-working Mexicans here who in their own country are getting paid only $3 an hour compared to the $12 or so they get here, if they are lucky.

Guess what: I built a house in Baja California with the help of skilled Mexican labor and they were getting only $15 a DAY! (That’s more like $2 an hour). You bet I paid them more than they asked for.

Please don’t vote for Donald Trump, who wants to deport all Mexicans who aren’t obviously citizens (and determining that during “sweeps” could be dicey!). First, it’s impractical; second, it’s painting Mexicans with an undeserved broad brush. If they’re convicted of crimes, that’s of course different.

And building an expensive wall on the Mexican border is just idiocy. Believe it or not, four out of 10 Americans want to build a wall on the Canadian border as well. Trump would probably be for that, too.

What kind of nation have we become when we discourage hard-working potential immigrants desperate for a better life?